Ege Bamyasi [Original recording remastered, Hybrid SACD - DSD]

Can | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 30, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered, Hybrid SACD - DSD
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B000654Z1E
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,346 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An album as good as its cover art is bad, August 20, 2005

By 

Wheelchair Assassin (The Great Concavity) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ege Bamyasi (Audio CD)

It seems that when it comes to Can, at least on this site, the conversation tends to be basically "Tago Mago this, Tago Mago that," which strikes me as more than a bit unfair. Tago Mago certainly *is* a brilliant album that's more than worthy of all the praise it's generated, but Ege Bamyasi, while obviously different, is in my humble estimation every bit as excellent. This album was vastly ahead of its time at its release three decades ago, but given the fact that rock music (or at least its public face) has seemingly regressed to the point of unbearable stupidity the contrast is even more obvious now. This album (much like Tago Mago) doesn't even fit into the prog-rock classification of the time, as there's little here to remind one of Rush or Pink Floyd. True, there aren't any crazed fifteen-plus minute epics of the sort you'll find on Tago Mago, but the (somewhat) more song-oriented approach of this album clearly suits Can just fine.

Led by the manic, freakish vocals of Damo Suzuki, Ege Bamyasi bends genres with aplomb, effortlessly including pop, rock, jazz, and psychedelia into one insanely eclectic and addictive stew. This album revels in detail and unpredictability, as each song is overflowing with off-kilter time signatures and and unconventional structures. Plenty of rock bands that have emerged since Can have employed similar devices-the Flaming Lips, Blur, and the Boredoms come to mind-but Can were arguably both the first and the best. The songs here often take as their starting point only the bare bones of the traditional rock sound, but they're far from minimal, as Can were masters at fleshing out their material with decidedly non-rock instrumentation and bizarre use of tape loops.

While Ege Bamyasi may contain a mere seven songs and clock in at a relatively brief 40 minutes (about a half-hour less than Tago Mago), there's a lot of meat here, as every single track introduces an entirely distinctive and endlessly fascinating sound. Masterfully composed and sequenced, Ege Bamyasi veers wildly from one mood and style to another, but the results are always uniquely Can-esque (for lack of a better term). The opening double shot of Pinch and Sing Swan Song combines to form a perfect summation of Can's musical mission, as the first combines jazzy, driving percussion with Damo's swaggering vocals, while the second is a hushed, eerie mood piece led by sparse guitar picking and freaky atmospherics. The repetitious, vaguely upbeat One More Night is a quieter, easy-to-digest piece that provides a bit of a breather before the tense, dynamic-laden Vitamin C. Exploiting contrasts between light and dark in much the same way that made King Crimson darlings of the prog-rock scene, this latter song builds tension with some near-whispers from Damo and frantic drumming before exploding into a mantra of shouted vocals, off-timed drum hits, and funky basslines.

However, all of this brilliant material is just a buildup to the album's centerpiece, the brilliant tour de force that is Soup. Clocking in at about ten minutes, this song would be right at home on Tago Mago, as it's a sprawling, multifaceted epic that easily obliterates almost anything else that was coming out at the time. Crazed drumming, frightening shouts from Damo, screeching tape loops-it's all here, and that's just the song's first half. At about the five-minute mark, it disintegrates into an even scarier beast, as the tape loops get harsher, the instrumentation gets more eclectic, and Damo's vocals become more unhinged. By the end of the track he sounds like he's channeling some long-dead African deity while consuming massive quantities of peyote, and in this case that's a very good thing.

The album closes with two more straightforward, "poppier" songs in the form of I'm So Green and Spoon, but of course in this case the term "poppy" is entirely relative, as they still prove Can to be freakout masters of the highest order. Besides, after the aural and mental workout the first five tracks provide, a little rest is in oder anyway. In any case, Ege Bamyasi is masterpiece no matter how you slice it, a diverse, resolutely uncategorizable piece of music that defines the krautrock genre even as it stakes out its own musical ground. You simply must hear it before you die.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW! Remastering a classic, January 13, 2005

By 

Marc Rehula "mrehula" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ege Bamyasi (Audio CD)

I used to listen to this album under the grand shadow of Can's masterpiece, Tago Mago. Both albums -- ur, CD's -- have now been remastered. I'd purchased a Tago Mago CD a couple years ago, but decided to buy Ege Bamyasi to see how good the remastering is.

Wow.

I had forgotten how powerful the songs and the performances are, but I was actually startled at how the drums, guitar, and bass jumped out of my speakers. I immediately got the remastered Tago Mago as well. Both albums feature Can at the height of their powers, both albums among the best that emerged from the Kraut Rock movement.

If you're not a Can fan yet, let the music, which is different than what you're used to, sink into your soul: listen to it a lot before evaluating it. If you ARE a Can fan already, I recommend these remasters highly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grooving subtle krautrock, July 21, 2005

By 

Chet Fakir (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ege Bamyasi (Audio CD)

Can's fourth album is something like a series of mellow '70's period extended grooves by Miles Davis run through a German psychedelic rock band filter with the trumpet replaced by the excentric (to say the least) vocals of Damo Suzuki. Unlike Miles, jazz or fusion there aren't any solos as such, rather this albums strength lies in it's rhythmic interplay and textural overlays. I find Ege Bamyasi to be at times brilliant, at times irritating due to Damo, somewhat overated, but never boring. Compared to the the album immediately preceding it, the masterpiece Tago Mago, it's looser, more laid back, the grooves more subdued and funky. This is a subtle album (crazed improv "Soup" notwithstanding) that may not immediately grab you but greatly rewards repeated listening. The album that followed it, the excellent Future Days, is somewhat more dreamy and textural. But although I prefer Tago Mago and Future Days, Ege Bamyasi wouldn't be a bad place at all to start if you're new to Can.